Lessons in Rule Breaking and Other Reader-Inserts*Steve Rogers*Reader*

Hug It Out - Pt. 1/4

But that woman.

She was rather lean, not the skin and bone type, but a healthy figure, hinting she didn't get an imaginary skin rush when she as much as walked around a pizza place. She wore simple skinny jeans – at least Steve believed that was the term these days –, a pair of dark blue sneakers and a strikingly bright blue t-shirt. For some reason, she caught his eye even before he could even get a proper look at her face.

It was the damn t-shirt calling out for his gaze like a magnet.

It's back, to be precise; it was the sign on it, which made him curious.

More so when only few moments later, he saw a figure approach the girl hesitantly, only to be rewarded with an inviting smile and after few words exchanged, the blue shirt woman... hugged the other one.

Steve couldn't say he wasn't intrigued. He decided to alternate his route to investigate the strange occurrence. After all, he had time. And when it came to running... that he could do all day.

---

Before going to college to study the field you had always wanted to, you knew that they were only two possibilities; either you would adore it or hate it. If you would have hated it, you would be genuinely and truly screwed, because psychology was something that fascinated you from your early years, probably earlier than any of your family members liked.

Luckily for you (and them), that wasn't the case. You loved studying human mind, the way it worked, figuring out the story behind someone's behaviour, guessing their motivations... and with a one hell of a luck, your enthusiasm had been noticed by one of your professors, who managed to find you a gig on top of that.

After reading you seminar paper in sociology, he had asked you whether you would be interested in publishing an article every now and then, based on social experiments. While sociology wasn't your main interest and the way it would work bordered with journalism on occasions, you said yes.

And now here you were, testing once again what people would do if... there was a person offering free hugs. It was an experiment of your own choice; the concept dating back to 2004 (which may seem like an ancient history to some people) was simply fascinating and heart-warming.

Plus, knowing you just might put a smile on someone's face and offer comfort was igniting something in you, a feeling of right pulsing in your veins.

There was no questioning whether you wanted to try. So you did.

You had been hanging out in West Potomac Park for about two hours now. The originally rainy day had turned into a pleasantly warm one, luring people out.

So far, 73 people had approached you to get a hug –some of them more reluctant than the others. You noticed the phenomena of the tourists being way more enthusiastic about it, but that was understandable – they were on their holiday and possibly wanted to enjoy their stay with everything that was offered. Also, people tended to come in waves – after ten minutes of nothing, individuals or groups eying you hesitantly, there was found one who was willing to step out from the crowd and start a madness. You loved it.

On occasion though, an individual just went for it and no one followed. Like with this woman. No one followed her example, at least not right away.

You noticed the blond man mostly because of his large frame and absolute inability to be subtle about his staring.

He was a big fella, handsome too, but you knew that neither of those thing necessarily meant he had to be confident; judging by the distance he kept and observed you from, you actually wondered if he was shy or a creep. It took him several minutes to work up the courage and that was only after the fourth time you caught him watching you.